


Tales From Nonexistence

by JustAWritist



Series: Writer's Cache [1]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Blood, Childhood Friends, How Do I Tag, M/M, Street Rats, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-23
Updated: 2016-01-26
Packaged: 2018-05-15 18:28:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5795287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustAWritist/pseuds/JustAWritist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nobody pays attention to the children who scrounged the streets. These Undesirable Children who live in a world unlike the world others know, yet exist in the same plane. Or do they? Can something- someone- really exist if no one knows they do? Loneliness can lead to nonexistence, for whose to say you exist if no one is there to affirm it?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Soooo I have a lot of stories- and I mean _a lot_ that I just never really finished. I figured: Well, why not put them somewhere? So this here is the first of a series of longer stories that just... never really went anywhere. Either way, I hope you enjoy!
> 
> Come talk to me:  
> goldie-the-cat.tumblr.com

Levi was always used to being alone. Which was ironic, since he was not alone in that feeling. He was one of the many children in Nonexistence, the place that only exists if you believe it does. Or so he and the other Undesirable Children called it. They named it Nonexistence because nobody believed they existed except themselves, or unless they caused trouble. So what makes someone exist? Is it the acknowledgement of others? Is our being only truly _there_ when it comes in contact with other beings, and they acknowledge us? Until then, aren’t we all just nonexistent? To the rest of the world, that is.

So Levi was used to being nonexistent to the rest of world. He and all the other children who’s parents had disappeared or died or simply left them on the street. As far as Levi was concerned, he only existed when he stole bread from the baker down the gray cobblestone street and the baker yelled at him.

“You damn brat!” The baker would yell. Levi would smirk because, in that very small moment, he existed to the rest of the world.

All these were heavy thoughts for a four year old boy. For that was when he stopped existing to the rest of the world. Or so Erwin had told him.

Erwin was another Undesirable Child, he was taller than the others and had broad, strong shoulders. Which was strange for an Undesirable Child, as most of them were thin boned and lanky. Their eyes sunken in their sockets, black rings highlighting yellow irises and sickly pale skin. Most of their cheeks hunkered against their bones and their skin hang on them like rags. But not Erwin’s, which made many of the children wonder how he got so tall, why his ribs showed but his shoulders stayed straight. Even his dirt-encrusted blonde hair always stayed neatly combed back. He looked almost healthy, until you saw the ribs poking through his skin.

For this, and many other things, Levi hated Erwin.

So he opted to avoid him, after their first encounter when Erwin explained the ability to exist and not exist at the same time to Levi.

Instead Levi found himself with two others, named Farlan and Isabel. At the age of six he joined with Farlan, who was an Undesirable Child left on the street when he parents moved. The two would steal bread together, and the baker’s saying changed to “You damn brats!”

Levi loved the letter ’s’. Because it meant he existed with someone, and that he wasn’t alone. He wasn’t alone, because Farlan was there.

Farlan was a child with dirty blonde hair, he looked like the others with his sunken in cheeks and hollow-boned body. Farlan was, however, hollower than most. Because he always found some way to care for those who didn’t get to steal bread, be it because they’d broken their leg or were ill or simply too inexperienced. He would give them bread, and then have none for himself.

Which it is perhaps this nature of his that led the two of them to Isabel. She was a gangly creature, with messy, rats-nested red hair that had dirt and who knows what else entangled in it. Levi soon lost track of the hours he spent trying to comb out all the muck and dirt from her hair. They’d met her when she was trying to free a baby phoenix the town guards had captured. She was injured and tired and hungry, and both Farlan and Levi were mystified about this strange girl who didn’t care about the hunt on magical beings.

Isabel was different like that, so was Farlan and to some extent so was Levi. They were children who hadn’t been outside the part of town where the beggars and the courtesans prowled the streets in the daylight. They knew but didn’t comprehend how dangerous magical beings were. Or so the town was taught and told. They, like everyone else, had heard the stories of dragons eating soldiers, armor and all as the metal was coughed out in a hot, steaming mess. They’d heard about innocent girl’s and boy’s bones picked by the sylph’s who wandered the forest, enchanting them with glittering eyes. The souls of those whose bones they carved their marks on would become torrential winds that would then forever haunt the towns with their howling wails. The children forever trapped in a ripping pain, a symphony of howls their only release. They’d even heard of the titans, ancient gods banished to the mountainside. Each looking like a tall, disfigured human with gnashing teeth, they were the ones who held up the Great Mountain that forever loomed in the distance. The titans were the only ones the human’s felt wary towards, but never fear. For they knew how to keep the titans on the mountain, imprisoning them as the mountain’s brace so that the tip of the rocks could hold up the sky. But there was always the fear that one would get loose, and their everlasting hunger would lead them to an innocent town. Levi had heard of the ravaged rubble and broken bones they left in their wake. Everyone had. Titans were feared, even more than sylphs.

But they were children, how were they to fully comprehend the terror that lay beyond the shadow of the capital’s castle that they resided in?

Farlan and Isabel never got the chance to. Levi did.

It was warm, summer afternoon spent searching the gutters for any clean drinking water. Most of the grate-like filters had broken but if they walked far enough, sometimes they would find one that had been cleaned and fixed, the other side of the water would be safe to drink. There was no fixed grate that day. There hadn’t been for the past few days.

“Agh!” Isabel had let out a strangled, cracking cry of anger as she kicked the criss-crossed metal filter, lying uselessly on the side. Levi looked at her with an empty glance. His eyes were hollow and his cheek smudged with dirt, something he often tried to keep away from his skin.

“Isa-“ Farlan’s voice broke for a moment, he coughed and shook his head, “Isabel, don’t kick it, they won’t fix it if you do.” He stared down at the murky water, poked the green stream with a stick as sweat beaded down his forehead, trickling off of his nose to join the stream.

“They won’t fix it anyway.” Levi muttered, stayed to the edge of the stream with Farlan. He watched as Isabel sloshed around in the sticky water and crinkled his nose, “That’s disgusting.” He commented. His now eight year old body curled down on a crouch, he looked past the water and into the alleyway.

The tiny four-year-old Isabel huffed, sloshing to the other edge of the street gutter and crawling up on the dirt path. She looked into the shadows where Levi was staring. She extended a small finger and pointed into the alley lined by the walls of ramshackle houses.

“There!” She said, a bright, conniving smile forming across cracked and dry lips, “Let’s go outside the town! Find an actual creek!”

Farlan sighed, “We can’t.” The guards wouldn’t let them through. There was one path outside of the town and there was always some royal guard on duty. To protect the denizens of the city from danger, they said. What danger? Everyone assumed it was the magical beings that lurked in the shadows of the forest.

Isabel placed her hands on her hips, pouting, “Don’t give up!” She reprimanded, then she smiled at Levi, “You’ll get us through, right Brother?”

She always called Levi her brother. Always called Farlan her brother. The three weren’t related, but somehow they’d become family.

Levi just cast his eyes to the side. They had to get out. If they didn’t they would die. He’d already seen Undesirable Children fall on the streets, run over by carriages or simply tossed into the underground gutter to rot. Some were even burned to satisfy the ever-ruthless sylphs. Of course the last one was just a rumor, Levi hadn’t smelled any smoke. But he had seen the guards drag several bodies off of the street. Bodies he might have known, had he seen their faces.

Levi preferred not to think about it.

Levi took a breath, he stood and Farlan watched him do it. “We don’t have a choice.” He commented. Isabel’s face fell. “We have to go.” Her face lit up again.

“I knew it! I knew we could do it!” She spun, her brown shoes now darkened with muddy water making marks on the dust as it rose up to meet her enthusiasm.

“I didn’t say we could do it!” Levi snapped, “I said we _have_ to try. Don’t get so damn cocky.” He looked into the alleyway. He hopped over the water, preferring not to get his own feet dirty. He looked back at Farlan, who was still crouched by the murk. Farlan sighed,

“I’m not about to be left behind.” He then gave the two a small smile and stood, trudging through the water that squished under the sole of his torn shoes. Levi shook his head in disgust, then the three traveled into the shadows. The cool barrier against the merciless sun was the only and last blessing they would receive that day.

The guards were talking quietly, laughing to themselves about some joke or another. It was easy for Levi and the others to pad by, long as they were quiet, long as they were careful, and long as the guards kept their bottles in front of them.

Watching the glimmering green glass with liquor inside of it sparked annoyance in Levi. They so easily obtained such a luxury liquid, when the others couldn’t even find water. Had he been older, Levi would have identified the feeling as a primal rage. But, still retaining some innocence at eight, he failed to identify that which made his fingernails dig into the palms of his hands.

The rest of their trip to the forest had gone without complications. Isabel let out a whoop as they sprinted down the green rolling hills that led to the leafy line, the border between the town and the forest. The edge of reality, and the tip of the unknown. Isabel bolted right through, Farlan rushed to catch up with her, and Levi ran behind the three, sweat beading down his back and his heart thrumming against the edge of his ribcage. His bones vibrating to the rhythm.

He was _free_ , and heading to somewhere he’d never been before. Levi had never been one for excitement, even at eight, but he felt it coursing through his blood. Running down his veins and filling his aching legs with the urge to just keep going.

He gulped, and swallowed dried air. At that his mind sharpened to a singular point, a singular goal. Water. They had to find clean water before they succumbed to the heat.

He skidded to a halt. Farlan and Isabel stopped too, soon as they heard the leaves disturb at Levi’s feet.

“What wrong, Brother?” Isabel said in gasping breath, she skipped over to where Levi stood, leaves crunching and fluttering under her feet. Farlan walked up to Levi, the two awaited his answer.

Levi’s gray eyes flicked around. They were surrounded by towering trunks, the roots careening up and then spiking the ground and disappearing beneath the dirt. The thickly leaved canopy waved when a breeze pushed it’s way through the forest, causing the light to flicker in leaf-like block patterns. The light bounced and waved off of the three children, highlighting their eyes, noses, or skin in light, and then shadowing them in darkness. It was like an ever-changing patchwork quilt layered against the undergrowth of thick green. Vines grew up the side of trees, wrapping them in strings of green and red, leaves protruding as the vines vampired life from the ever-growing trees.

The sound of water trickling filled Levi’s ears.

“That way.” He pointed in the direction of the sound to the others, and the three took off at their sprint. There was no leader and follower, just a mass of eager legs rocking back and forth as they left a trail of disturbed leaves in their wake.

The pools of water were the most beautiful thing they’d ever seen. Crystaline, no muck, no dirt, just clear blue flowing water. The light, when the leaves let it through, glinted off of the surface of the pools that flowed from one to another through the small, trickling river of water. The water swirled in each pool, almost like hair underwater. Isabel gave an excited call and bounded forth until she was at the water’s edge. Farlan turned and smiled broadly at Levi.

“We did it!” He was breathless, they all were. But the exhaustion had no effect when they stepped up to the shore, edged with pebbles to provide a rocky, slippery footing.

After finding his balance on the edge of the stones, Levi crouched down, cupping his muddy hands and submerging them in the water. He watched the dirt roll off in waves and reveal pale skin beneath. Levi rubbed his hands together until he lifted up his now-clean fingers. Shimmering in the light that dotted his knuckles and coated with a layer of river-water. The feeling of being free of the dirt was wonderful and new to him. Levi cupped his hands again in the water and began to drink. It was cool, refreshing, and helped soothe his cracked and dry throat.

The three relished this new feeling, the feeling of satisfaction, the feeling that they were assured to survive another day. That was the greatest feeling in the world to the three children.

And the feeling was wrong.

Farlan saw a glint when the canopy waved again, a disturbance in the flow of water kept him interested. He walked into the water, waist-deep as he headed towards the disturbance.

“Oh that looks like fun!” Isabel chimed, and dove straight into the water, submerging herself as she swam out to the middle, where he feet no longer touched the ground. She submerged herself then came up again, laughing joyously.

“Come on Brother!” She giggled, doing flips and twirls in the water.

“I’m good.” Levi said with a small smile, he preferred to sit by the edge and watch the water flow. But he did like the feeling of being free of the dirt, so he placed his hands in the water again and began to splash it on his face, loving the feeling of the dirt breaking free from his sunken-in cheeks.

But Farlan occupied himself with something entirely different then twirls or cleanliness. He’d reached the disturbance. A small dagger with the royal insignia was lodged in between the stones.

“This could help us…” He thought, reaching his hand under the water as he gripped the black handle and began to try to pull it out of the water. It was stuck, though, so he took both hands and pulled harder. It felt like something was… keeping it down, almost. Holding it and preventing him from grabbing it.

Isabel stopped her twirls to watch Farlan as he tried to pull something out of the rocks.

“Hey, Farlan! What are you doing?” She asked as she swam over to where he was. Once she saw what he was doing she reached down to help him. Taking the dagger in both hands she tried to help him pull it out of the rocks. Levi walked over to the river’s edge, closer to where the two of them were.

“We should go.” He said, feeling something change in the way the water flowed. He couldn’t explain it but… there was a reason that dagger was there, there was a reason it wasn’t coming out. And Levi didn’t want to find out the reason why.

“Not… yet!” Isabel grunted, pulling on the dagger again.

“We should go,” Levi repeated, his eyes on the swirling water, “ _Now_.” He finally knew what was wrong with the flow of the water, it was flowing _towards them._ Swirling around Farlan and Isabel.

Farlan looked up, “Why?” He asked.

Isabel pulled the dagger free with an ‘Aha’, she held it up triumphantly.

And that was when the Lake Siren appeared. Her body emerging from the water, soaked in a sheet of water that rippled off of her shiny blue scales and gushed from her opened mouth, thousands of needle-like teeth poking out behind her lips in layers. Farlan yelled as she dug those needled layers into his neck, a dark red began to mix with the ocean. She dug her long, dirty yellow nails into his shoulder and began to tear as his eyes began to go black.

“ _Farlan!_ ” Isabel screeched, the Lake Siren threw her head back, layers of pitch colored hair fading into the water in mats, and then becoming part of the lake itself. The Lake Siren’s golden eyes dilated with her silver pupils, encompassed by black irises. She let the bloody hunk of cloth and skin fall from her open mouth. The skin around her lips stretched, wider and wider until a snap like broken bone and the sound of tearing paper filled the air. The skin tore away on her cheeks as she let out an ear-piercing screech. Birds scattered the skies and the Lake Siren lunged towards Isabel, submerging her under the lake. Isabel released the knife.

Levi was on his feet in an instant, but an instant too slow. He sprinted through the water, when he came to Farlan’s floating form, the body was already silent and cold.

He was young, but he’d seen death before. He knew it then, resting comfortably in his dear friend’s blank eyes. Levi choked back a ragged breath.

Isabel, he had to find Isabel.

Levi left Farlan’s body to turn the river red and dove under the water, his eyes open as he looked around.

He found her struggling against the torrential currents that now made up the shape of the Lake Siren. She was the water itself, pinning Isabel down, drowning her.

Levi had to save her, but he didn’t know how. A glint caught his eye, _the knife_. Levi swam towards the silver figure and gripped its handle. He launched himself across the rocks and swiped at the watery figure that looked vaguely like the Siren. To his surprise it connected. The Lake Siren gave another yell, muffled only slightly by the water, as her full form took shape. Pale skinned and with blood seeping from her neck. She turned to Levi, who was wide-eyed with surprise.

But she didn’t attack. Her layered teeth just gaped open at him, he could see a forked tongue resting in a mouth that now leaked crimson blood. Her black and gold eyes rolled back into her head as long-lashed lids fluttered over them. Her matted hair swam around them in clumps, like it had a life of it’s own. Then the body began to disappear, fade away into the rest of the water.

Levi’s lungs ached, yelling at him to go up and get air. He turned and grabbed Isabel’s unmoving figure, but before he swam up he turned his head once more.

A woman with elegantly braided black hair and bright green eyes was smiling at him. Blood leaked from her mouth and when she smiled he saw no dagger teeth, only a bittersweet, peacefully smile with bright white _human_ teeth. She mouthed the words ‘thank you’, and then ‘I’m sorry’. Then she, too, was gone in the water.

Levi felt his mind start to shut down. He swam rapidly up for air, and gasped when he broke the surface of the lake. Coughing out all the water and blood that had entered his lungs he dragged Isabel to the shore with him. Once she was set away from the water’s edge, Levi collapsed to his hands and knees and began to retch. A horrible, sickening sound as his chest convulsed. Soon as he was emptied of the liquid in his lungs, he fell to the side and began to sob.

Levi had barely cried as a child, and never as much as he had then.

But Isabel still wasn’t moving, and that wasn’t good. He dragged himself forward, clump of grass by clump of grass until he was at her side. Her chest was still, her tiny lips were blue.

“Isabel,” Levi said, “Isabel come on, we have to-“ He hiccuped, tears rolling down the bridge of his nose, “we have to go home.” He sniffed, and swiped at the snot that was trickling from his nose.

“Isabel,” Levi shook her shoulder, her head flopped to the side, “Isabel, please.” He pleaded, “Please don’t leave me, I’m your brother, remember? You wouldn’t leave your brother, right?” He hiccuped, his arms shook as he shook her harder, “Come on! You wouldn’t leave me, right? You and Farlan, we said… We’re family… You don’t…” He swiped at his eyes, damning the tears that betrayed his sorrow, “You don’t leave family behind!”

Isabel didn’t respond, she didn’t move. Water trickled from the edge of her mouth.

“Isabel!” Levi screamed, pressing on her shoulders, “Wake up, Isabel!”

But it was futile. Even at eight, Levi was beginning to understand that. A familiar glint caught his eye, he’d dragged the dagger up with him. He grabbed its handle once more,

“Damn you!” He screamed, as loud and as broken as the Siren herself had screamed, and tossed it into the bushes. Levi curled up on himself, “You damn…” He hiccuped, that’s what the baker had said to them, right? No… there was something else. “You damn brats.” He threw his hand over his eyes, started sobbing again, and waited for his chest to stop hurting. He didn’t think it ever would.

Levi wouldn’t had gotten up had not a group of guards heard the commotion and come running into the woods, quick as they could and far too late. Levi didn’t want to leave Farlan and Isabel’s bodies, but he was dragged, kicking and screaming, away from the forest and slumped onto the back of one of the guard’s horses. Someone, he didn’t know who, handed him the knife that ‘he’ lost. Levi kept it, he didn’t know why, perhaps as a reminder, perhaps because it was actually useful.

Especially so when they dumped him right back where he’d come from, the streets of city, in the shadow of Castle Maria. And all too suddenly Levi was back in Nonexistence.

For Isabel and Farlan were gone, and nobody was left to assure Levi that he existed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lil clarification: The age-gap here is a different. In this, they're... I think 2 years apart? I wrote it a while ago but I believe that Eren is eight and Levi is ten. Mainly because the main-focus of the first half of this story was going to be Undesirable Children and Levi and Eren as two of these Undesirable Children trying to make a living despite being A. Too young to understand how the world works and B. Not possessing the skills to survive on their own so having to work together. That and I just love the idea of childhood friends growing into lovers when they're older, so I bent the rules a bit.
> 
> Come talk to me:  
> goldie-the-cat.tumblr.com

Levi learned, again, how to live alone. How to manage without Farlan and Isabel there to help him along. Much had happened in those two years.

Erwin and those who followed him had disappeared, off to who knows where.

The Royal Family had set up an orphanage for all the Undesirable Children, and now many were being forced off of the gutters and into the prison they called a ‘home’. Levi actively avoided getting caught.

The baker went back to saying ‘You damn brat!’, and never even once questioned as to where the other two went.

Levi stopped stealing from that baker, and started stealing from the one on the other side of town.

And the out of all the glum, there was a single ray of light. Levi had made his own home. A small, abandoned ramshackle house on the south end of the Capital in the guttural depths of the slums. Nobody cared when a now ten-year-old kid had begun to sweep and clean the place. Nobody noticed when he would open the door and bar it shut at night, sleeping on a floor padded with cushions he’d scavenged.

It was a rickety old place, and it reeked of mildew and the wild garden that grew outside and climbed up the fenced-in walls. The windows were broken and it took ages for Levi to sweep up all the glass with the leaves he’d used from the gardens. It had no water system and he would store buckets of water in the storage closet. What once was the kitchen was now the only place safe to light a fire, so the oven became the fireplace. There wasn’t much else besides that, Levi didn’t care much for anything other than shelter during a storm. He boarded the windows, and hunkered down, expecting to live and die alone in the old one-story house. Only life had a way of disturbing his plans.

This disturbance came in the form of a boy, screaming and kicking at guards that were trying to drag him to the orphanage… or somewhere.

This boy, with his messy, wind-blown brown hair and bright green eyes was clawing desperately at where the guard had gripped his hair. He was yelling bloody murder and trying to tug his way away, twisting and turning, his tiny body coiling like a snake. He was muddy and scraped up, a thin river of blood trickled down his forehead from where the guard had gripped him.

It was this trickle of blood that set Levi off. The boy was no more than eight, close to the age Isabel was when she died. Levi reacted without thinking, darting out from the shadows by the alleyway he’d been scavenging in as the guard looked up to see his figure rushing towards them.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing bra-“ The guards exclamation was cut short by a deft flick of the knife Levi had kept by his side all these years. The guard let out an exclamation of pain and his partner began to draw his sword. Levi turned on his heel, flipping his grip on the weapon, and drove the handle of the knife into the guard’s un-armored gut. The guard let out a whoosh of air and collapsed to the ground. Levi turned and saw the boy staring at him with wide eyes that seemed, to him, such a bright, unusual green.

“Get up,” Levi said curtly, not fully sure what he was doing himself, “Follow me and keep your head down low.” He started walking, and he hadn’t meant to look back and check on the boy but he did, and he felt relief when the boy seemed to pick himself off of the ground with little to no problem and start following Levi. Although he was slightly worried when the boy walked with a small limp, holding his side and gritting his teeth against the pain. Levi kept walking, but slowed his pace a notch so that the boy could keep up.

Levi led the boy to his humble abode, holding open the door as the boy hesitated at the steps.

“You live here?” He asked, wide-eyed.

“Yes, I do,” Levi replied, “Now get the fuck inside.” He’d picked up a more colorful vocabulary after moving into the deeper parts of the slums. He expected the boy to be used to this kind of language, but he still stared at Levi wide-eyed.

“Did I stutter, brat?” Another thing Levi hadn’t meant to do, call him ‘brat’. But it’d just kind of slipped out. He hadn’t used that word since he’d said it at Isabel and Farlan’s death. But the boy just smiled at Levi, bright, energetic, and familiar in an oddly distant way.

“No, sir!” The boy chimed before walking inside. Soon as he was inside he began to look around. Levi followed him in, shutting the door behind them and barring it with the wooden plank he kept leaning against the wall. He let the boy explore while he walked into his room and pulled out two of the cushions he used as part of his makeshift bed. He dragged the pillows across the room and set them down in the empty commons space. An odd splash of red and cream in the otherwise plain wooden room. Light leaked out of the partly-boarded windows, the moth-eaten curtains fluttering in a stray breeze, dust particles caught the light and danced in the air. Stuffing leaked out of the cream pillow when Levi sat down. The boy looked over from his position at the noise. Despite his injury he had chosen to teeter haphazardly on a three-legged stool nearby the window to try to grab a flower that had grown on a vine crawling up the side of the house.

“Sit down,” Levi nodded with his head to the red pillow in front of him. The boy hopped down from the stool, which rocked back and forth at the disturbance and then settled into place. The boy walked across and sat down carefully on the pillow, crossing his legs as he held his side. It was obvious he was injured. Levi leaned forward, the boy recoiled. Levi leaned back at the boy opened his eyes, staring at him with that bright, unblinking green. But as Levi watched, they no longer seemed as green, but more of a green-blue, and equally as bright.

“Relax, kid, I’m not going to hurt you.” He commented, before reaching forward again and taking the hem of the boy’s dirtied white shirt, the boy still hadn’t removed his hand.

“You’re a kid, too!” The boy was injured and bleeding but his main complaint seemed to be the name he was given in lack of a real one.

Levi sighed, “I’m older than you, now, I need to check your injury, okay? Do you trust me enough to do that?” He knew the boy shouldn’t, wouldn’t, not with somebody who he’d just met. Not with somebody who he’d seen is capable of taking out two guards in a matter of seconds. The boy blinked, his eyes still that illusionary shifting blue-green. One moment it was more a bright, grassy green, the next a calm, oceanic blue.

“My name is Eren.” He said, Levi stared at the kid. Waiting for more before he realized Eren was waiting for his name as well.

“Levi.” He said, and then Eren took his hand away from the shirt. Levi lifted the hem and stared at thin skin clinging desperately to a row of ribs, the skin was an ugly black and purple color, terribly bruised. Levi ran his free hand over the wound and when he got closer to the armpit Eren winced, whining in pain. Levi retracted his hand and let the shirt fall into place, Eren went back to holding his side, staring expectantly at Levi.

“You probably have a broken rib.” Levi sighed, leaning forward on his knees.

“Oh,” Eren said, “Okay.” He took it rather well, Levi thought. Levi excused himself to dig through his near-empty storage closet for a bandage. As he did he wondered what to do with Eren. The logical part of him told Levi to put him back on the streets, they all had to survive on their own. But something held him back… Some part of him that had been shut away for a long time told him to offer the kid a haven here, and if not a haven then at least a home. At least until he got better.

 _Just until he can take care of himself._ Levi told himself as he gripped the wrappings and retreated back to the living room where Eren was occupying himself by watching the thin curtains wave back and forth in the breeze.

“Hey, brat,” Levi leaned against the doorframe, the building creaked and settled with the added weight. Eren’s head swiveled over to Levi and he puffed out his cheeks in indigence.

“I have a name.” Eren pointed out, crossing his arms over his chest as he straightened his shoulders to look taller. Levi chuckled, it was almost cute, the way the kid tried to be more mature.

“And I have bandages,” Levi pointed out. Eren’s façade dropped at the sight of the white wrappings in Levi’s hand. His arms fell and Levi walked over to wrap up Eren’s torso. Eren put up no resistance this time, letting Levi remove his shirt and holding out his arms as instructed, not without a small wince, as Levi wrapped up the bruised area. Eren remained strangely silent during all this time. Levi didn’t prod him.

“Okay, that should be it.” Levi said as he tore off a piece of the wrapping and began to secure it in a knot. As he tied the bandaging Eren began to speak.

“Are you going to kick me out on the streets again…?” Eren’s voice was small, meek, and scared. It was a fear Levi knew very personally. The fear of being alone, of not existing to anyone but yourself.

“No,” Levi answered firmly, “No, I won’t.” He didn’t mention anything about it just being until Eren was fully healed, and didn’t mention anything about not having all the supplies he needed to fully take care of Eren. He didn’t mention any of this, and Levi wondered what had made him withdraw this information from the verbal form. Nonetheless Eren smiled, happily, gratefully, his eyes lowering and his shoulder’s slacking as if he’d been wrought up over the idea that Levi would kick him out. He probably was, and not without reason, too.

Eren shocked Levi by suddenly leaning over and grabbing Levi in a hug.

“Hey-!” Levi protested, but was soon stopped by Eren’s words.

“Thank you,” Eren choked out in a relieved sob, “Thank you for not abandoning me, Levi.” He said it in such a small voice, Levi felt all resistance drain out of him. Levi ran a hand through his hair, unsure of how to remove the small body pressed to his.

“Come on, brat, get off of me. You’re too damn dirty.” Levi protested, but Eren just squeezed tighter, laughing as he did so. Levi huffed, then he took a deep breath, “Fuck it, then…” He muttered, lifting Eren off of the floor and grabbing his shirt as he went. Levi knew he had to get Eren’s cuts cleaned and bandaged. So he carried Eren outside to a small trough that Levi now used to hold bathing water. Opening the sliding wooden door and stepping down the half-broken steps into the garden.The grass grew up to Levi’s ankles and weeds tickled his waist and chest where Eren still clung too. The entire garden was a mass of green and sunlight, a lone, tall tree grew in the center and cast a shadow of shade where all the plants were smaller. The sound of cicadas buzzing filled Levi’s ear as he walked through the overgrown forest of a backyard garden. Levi pried Eren off of him and placed him in the trough. He pointed to the rope that had been strung up from the edge of the trough to a small picket Levi had dug into the ground.

“Hang your clothes there, I’ll be right back.” He instructed, Eren nodded and began to peel off his pants. Levi put the dirty shirt on the makeshift clothesline and walked inside. He went to the storage closet and retrieved one of the buckets of water and a ragtag cloth from the bottom shelf where he kept all the cleaning supplies. He also grabbed a white sleeping shirt he used occasionally and picked up the bandages from the common room as he proceeded to the door again. Levi walked back to the garden and to the trough where Eren was sitting patiently, poking at his cuts and bruises.

“Oi, don’t poke at them unless you want them to get infected.” Levi scolded Eren, who immediately dropped his hands. Levi rolled up his sleeves and poured half of the bucket into the trough, not wanting to get Eren’s bandages wet the water only reached his ankles. Levi placed the cloth in the water and squeezed out the extra water before he silently set to work cleaning out Eren’s scrapes and other wounds. Eren squirmed in discomfort.

“Hey, stop moving.” Levi snapped, and Eren stilled. There were bruises everywhere, scrapes everywhere. Some were red and irritated and some actually bled.

“Did the guards do all this too you?” Levi asked in a sickened tone. Eren nodded, Levi scowled. “Damn them,” He muttered, running the washcloth over a small cut as he removed the dirty, clotted blood on Eren’s neck. Blood welled up again in the thin line, it looked like it’d been made from a knife. Like they’d tried to slit his throat. The thought of yet another young boy left to bleed dry on the city streets made Levi sick to his core.

“But you saved me,” Eren broke his thoughts, a small smile creeping over the four-year-old’s face, “So now everything’s alright.”

“Mmm,” Levi commented, submerging the cloth once again before squeezing out the rest of the water and bringing out the bandages again before tearing off a strip and wrapping it around Eren’s neck, and another for the cut on his hand, and the third strip for the injury on his forehead. “I don’t think _everything_ will ever be alright, kid.." Once Eren was cleaned and bandaged, Levi helped him out of the trough and slip the nightshirt over his head. It was much too big and fell to his ankles, his arms disappearing inside of the sleeves. Eren gave a twirl, testing out the feeling of the cotton shirt.

“I think it will be,” Eren came full circle, stopping in front of Levi and giving him that full-mouthed smile, his eyes were bright green, and Levi could swear he saw a glimmer of gold on the edges, “Long as you’re here, Levi.” Levi reached over and pulled the plug that emptied out the trough.

“Why am I so damn special?” He muttered as he watched the water swirl down into the ditch he’d dug underneath the trough, it led to the garden to water the plants. Eren shrugged as Levi put the cork back in the hole and emptied the rest of the bucket into the trough, pulling Eren’s clothes from the clothesline and grabbing the paddle that rested to the side of the tub to begin washing the clothes.

“I don’t know,” Eren admitted, “I guess you just are. To me, anyway.” Eren concluded his theory with a nod, making his matted brown hair bob back and forth. Levi began to paddle the clothes, watching the fabric swirl around.

“You’re really fucking strange, brat, you know that?” He said, lifting the clothes before plopping them back down with a splash as the water caught the light and glittered in small bead-like drops.

“But in a good way, right?” Eren smiled.

“Go back inside and see if you can find some bread in the pantry for dinner.” Levi ignored Eren’s question. Eren mock-saluted, one fist over his heart and the other curled around his back.

“Yes, sir!” He chanted before walking happily back into the house. Levi watched him go in the corner of his eyes, then let his gaze drift back to the matter at hand.

“Tch,” He clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth, “Strange.” He muttered, before churning the clothes yet again. Yet why did it make him so happy to see Eren’s smile? And yet also so… nostalgic. There was something he was missing, what it was, though, Levi hadn’t a clue.

Levi spent the rest of the day washing his clothes and Eren’s clothes, then hanging them up to dry and cleaning up the common room. He’d told Eren just to take some pillows and use them to sleep on. By the time he entered the bedroom, Eren was already curled up in the corner, a single pillow under his head.

“Dammit, Eren, I told you to take more than one…” Levi whispered, so as not to wake the sleeping child. He grabbed several more pillows from where he slept and gently lifted up Eren’s form before placing the pillows under his body. Setting him back down to sleep. Then he walked over to his side of the room and lay down on the remaining pillows, staring up at the creaking ceiling until he finally fell asleep.

Halfway through the night he was awoken by the sound of Eren’s shivering. With a sigh Levi pushed himself off of the floor and walked over to where Eren was. He looked around the empty room, he hadn’t any blankets and he didn’t want Eren getting sick in the night. Levi threw his hands up in frustration, cursing silently before he picked Eren up and carried him over to where Levi slept. Levi laid Eren down next to him and then lay on the other side, hoping that maybe Eren would catch some of his body heat. Eren rolled over in his sleep and gripped Levi’s arm.

“Fucking heat-seeking brat.” Levi grumbled into the dark, bluish-black night. The full moon illuminating the room and casting a soft white light over the two of them. Levi put his hand around Eren and drew him closer as he felt Eren still, he looked over, worried that something bad had happened, only to see Eren sleeping peacefully. His chest rising and falling as if nothing had happened. Levi sighed, his hand absentmindedly combing out the knots in Eren’s hair, as he closed his eyes and slowly fell asleep, calmed by the sound and rhythm of Eren’s breathing next to him.

In the morning, when Eren awoke, Levi was gone from his side. He rubbed his eyes sleepily and looked around the room. He remembered being cold, but then warm… Somehow. How did that happen? And how did he get to this side of the room? Eren looked around curiously. He pushed himself up off of the pillows and saw that there were more pillows than the one he’d originally dragged over to sleep on. No wonder he was so comfortable. But, still, how did he get all the way over _here_? Eren pursed his lips. He heard the sound of water trickling and walked over to the cream colored curtain filled with holes. There was an empty bookshelf at the windowsill, and Eren was too small to see through it on the ground. So he grabbed onto the first ledge, huffed and pulled himself onto the first shelf. It creaked in protest of his weight, but Eren just grabbed hold of the next one, his side hurt terribly but he wanted to see what was happening. Eren grimaced through the sharp pain as he pulled himself onto the next shelf, balancing the ball of his tiny feet on the edge of the shelf. Eren let out a small whine, it hurt so bad… but he had to know. Just two more, he told himself, just two more then he could see who was on the other side of the wall. Eren heaved himself up, a fresh wave of agony washing over his side, and he almost lost his grip. But Eren steadied himself and pulled himself up on the last one where he then collapsed against the windowsill, his breathing heavy and strained.

“The hell are you doing?” Levi’s ten-year-old face appeared on the other side, he was leaning casually against the windowsill, one of the buckets of water, a quarter empty, in his left hand. Eren blinked, he was face-to-face with Levi when he looked up. And Levi’s gray eyes were all Eren could see for a moment. Just gray and black and white, and nothing else.

“I wanted to see who was on the other side.” Eren replied honestly. Levi raised an eyebrow.

“Who else would it be but me?” He asked, then he took his knuckles and tapped them on Eren’s head gently, “Use your brain, brat. You could have injured yourself.”

Eren pouted, “But what if someone had snuck in?” He protested, his hands curling around the edge of the windowsill.

“Who would have snuck into this shit-hole?” Levi grimaced, leaning back, and crossing his arms, bucket in hand.

“A robber.” Eren said proudly.

“And what the hell would you do if it was a robber? You’re eight.” Levi smirked when Eren straightened his shoulders again, proudly puffing his chest and placing a hand over his heart.

“And you're ten! 'Sides, I would have fought them off!” He said it with such conviction, Levi believed the kid would actually try to fight anyone who threatened him, “Besides, you’re only ten and you won against those guards.” Eren’s eyes sparkled with enthusiasm at the memory. Levi shook his head,

“Yeah, but I know how to fight, I don’t think you’ve learned that yet, right?” He cocked his head, Eren looked down.

“No…” Eren mumbled, but then he smiled broadly as an idea came to his mind, “But you can teach me!” He said happily. “Show me how to fight so I can defend myself and others!” He looked so excited, and Levi hadn’t even said yes yet.

“I don’t know, Eren, I’ve never taught anyone to fight…” Levi lowered his arms, the bucket beginning to weigh heavily on his shoulder.

“Well then I can be your first-ever apprentice!” Eren’s eyes were aglow in that special way, changing from blue to green and hinted at amber. Levi called it a trick of the light. “Please, Levi!” Eren pleaded.

“Alright,” Levi hadn’t meant to agree, but it felt like he was doing a lot of things he hadn’t meant to do with Eren around. “But only once your side heals.” He added, Eren nodded.

“I’ll be sure to get better soon, then.” He promised.

“Great, now stay there and let me get you down so that you don’t hurt yourself again.” Levi said and walked over to the sliding doors, opening the wooden door and setting the bucket down by the entrance to go and help Eren down from the situation he got himself in.

Eren did heal quickly, surprisingly so. Within a week he was running around like he’d never broken his rib. Levi was shocked, and wondered if the injury hadn’t been as bad as it had seemed when he first looked at it. Nonetheless he wasn’t one to delay, and now that Eren had an extended stay with him, they decided to get right to training.

Eren was shit at fighting, at first. He always fumbled with the stick Levi had given him in place of an actual weapon. They would stand for hours in the garden, Eren listening intently to Levi’s instructions before sparring with the twigs they held as swords.

“Keep your elbow up when you guard, it’ll give you more leverage and make it easier should you come sword-to-sword with your opponent.” Levi mimicked his words, and Eren mirrored his motions. The grass made it harder for them to train, as it would sometimes trip Eren when he tried to move through the long tendrils of green.

“Now try to dodge me,” Levi said, he lunged forward, Eren attempted to feign left, as Levi had taught, but his ankle caught on a grass knot and Eren fell to the side, right into Levi’s swing. Levi’s stopped his hand just before it hit Eren’s head and instead Eren just sat on the grass, staring up at Levi. Who pushed the stick into the ground beside Eren.

“And now you’re dead.” He commented blandly.

“It’s not my fault!” Eren said, picking grass out of his brown hair, “I tripped on the grass!”

“Know your surroundings, use them to your advantage.” Levi replied, he began looking around, the sun was high in the center of the sky. It was noon.

“How?” Eren asked, trying to detangle the grass from his ankle. Levi pursed his lips in thought, his eyes landed on the patch of foxtails that grew.

“Try to attack me,” Levi said, then turned back to Eren, “And watch what I do.” He stood back, then raised his stick as Eren picked himself up off of the grass, the sound of the usual cicadas filled Levi’s ears. “Don’t forget to lift your arm.” He said. Eren nodded, lifting his arm and waiting.

The two stood, surrounded by the sound of cicadas and the rustling of foxtails in the breeze, then Eren lunged, their twigs connected as Levi sidestepped, using the connection to redirect Eren so that Levi’s back was to the foxtails. Eren spun around and attacked again, Levi did what Eren had failed to do, feigned left and then dashed right. Eren fell right into the foxtails with a thud and an ‘oomph’.

Eren grabbed his twig and picked himself up, his arm up, he looked around. But all he saw were the stems of the foxtail plants, he tried to listen for footsteps, but he only heard the buggy buzz. Disoriented, Eren began to spin in a circle, trying to find his way out of the foxtail maze. When he finally emerged on the other side, something hard connected with his side, a ‘thwack’ noise rung in his ears as he fell on his bum. He stared up at the smirking face of Levi.

“You cheated!” Eren protested.

“Actually no, I didn’t,” Levi crouched down by Eren, “I used my surroundings.”

That was when the pieces clicked with Eren. “Oh.” He said, “I think I get it!” He stood up again, his hand tightening around the stick as he smiled, “I want to try! Let’s go again, Levi!”

Levi smiled, actually smiled, and shook his head. “Sorry, Eren, but I have to go get bread before the lunch rush is over.” It was during that time that the baker was busiest, and he never expected a thief to steal in bright daylight, so that’s exactly what Levi did.

Eren’s face fell, “Okay…” He sounded so disappointed, and guilt carved it’s way into Levi’s heart. Levi reached out and ruffled Eren’s hair.

“Hey, don’t look so glum,” He said, “I’ll be back before you know it.” Levi then stood, Eren hugged Levi around his waist, stopping him for a moment.

“Come back soon, Levi.” Eren said, smiling up at the older boy.

“I will,” Levi said, Eren nodded then let go, Levi walked back up the creaking steps and slid open the old wooden door, as he looked back he saw Eren making pointed jabs at the air for practice, his arm was down. “Arm up!” Levi called, Eren looked back at him, nodded with a smile, then lifted his arm and continued to swing at the air. Levi shook his head, persistent little brat, he thought before closing the door behind him and leaving to steal from the baker.

“You damn brat!” The baker called as Levi dashed into the alleyway, concealed by the cloak of shadows. He kept running until he was sure nobody had followed him, then slowed to a walk. Two loaves of bread clutched to his chest. It wasn’t much but it was enough to last them for a while. If worst came to worst then he would sneak past the guards to hunt the squirrels that roamed outside of the town with his knife. Levi watched the guards walk past the entrance of the alleyway and then snuck by and into the next set of shadows. They were chatting to themselves, Levi couldn’t help but listen.

“Did you hear about that boy who escaped a week or so ago?” One of them was saying. Were they talking about Eren? Levi pressed himself to the wall and listened.

“Escaped? From what I heard it sounded like they got their asses kicked by some gutter rat kid!” The second guard let out a hardy laugh. At this Levi knew they were talking about Eren. The chink of metal joints and boots on cobblestone then stopped when the two guards stopped, still within earshot.

“Whatever happened, did you hear about what they’re saying?” The first guard again, in a hushed and quiet tone. Levi strained to listen.

“What’s that?” Even the second guard had lost his bravado.

“The king’s ordering his capture.” The first guard said, Levi’s head whipped around the corner, the first guard was a burly man with a fox’s smirk, much too pompous and sly for Levi’s liking, “They’re saying it’s the king’s fault the mom’s dead. His dad’s a traitor and the king mistakenly killed the wife instead, let the dad escape and abandon his son. King doesn’t want the scandal getting into the public streets.” The gossip continued, but Levi didn’t want to hear anymore. He turned and walked away briskly.

The king was trying to cover his tracks from a mistake, there was nothing new there. But that would mean they’d be looking for Eren.

He had to get better at defending himself, else Levi feared the worst.

“You’re back!” Eren smiled when Levi returned, he was still standing in the garden, sweat beading at his brow even though the sun was setting and the sky was orange-red.

“How’s your training going?” Levi asked.

“Good,” Eren nodded, “I think I’m learning how to avoid grass knots.” He said with a smile. Levi nodded, his lips pressed together and his jaw stiff. Eren couldn’t be taken to that hellhole orphanage, not on Levi’s life. He wasn’t losing him. He didn’t know why he felt so… protective, but it was much too late to go back.

“Good,” Levi said, his eyes downcast. Eren, perceptive as he was, saw this.

“Are you alright, Levi?” He asked, his eyes blue with worry. Levi ignored the question,

“I brought bread, you must be hungry.” He said blandly, then turned on his heel and walked to the kitchen where he’d put the loaves away. Eren followed him silently, leaving his unanswered inquiry hanging in the heavy summer air.

It was on purpose that Levi gave Eren a bigger piece of bread than usual that day. He knew that they were both skin and bones and nothing was going to change that, but Eren needed all the muscle he could get should the guards ever find him… But they wouldn’t, Levi would make sure they wouldn’t. The two didn’t talk as they usually did during dinner. And when Levi crawled into his side of the room on his pillows, Eren hesitated before he walked over to the other side of the room. Levi hated to admit it but he felt colder without the warmth that he’d grown so used to, what when Eren would usually crawl over to his side and lay down next to him. Instead of acting upon his feeling, Levi simply turned his back to Eren and stared at the wall, one hand under his head. He could feel Eren’s eyes boring into him.

“Goodnight, Levi.” Eren said after a short period of silence, Levi just mumbled a response. After another few heartbeats he heard Eren curl up on his side of the room, on the pillows they’d set up for him, and then finally heard Eren’s breathing settle as he fell asleep. Levi stared at the wall for a while longer. He hardly got any sleep that night, he was far too cold.

When Eren awoke the next day, Levi was gone. He was used to Levi being gone from the room, often outside cleaning their clothes or dusting the house with a broom he’d stolen from an alleyway, but that day he was gone entirely. Gone from the house itself.

Eren wondered if it was because he hadn’t been able to follow Levi’s instructions properly. The thought filled him with sadness, and he became afraid that Levi was going to kick him out. Eren panicked, then steeled his nerves. No, if Levi was disappointed in him he’d just have to earn his affections again. Eren stood up and walked past the pantry, not bothering to take bread or water, he walked straight to the outdoors and grabbed the smaller stick he used from the side of the house. He walked to the shaded area under the tree, and began to smack the stick against the trunk in the exercises Levi had taught him.

Arm up, feet back, elbow bent, body relaxed. He went through all the positions in his mind as the stick thwacked against the trunk again and again. Jump left, feign right, pivot forward, turn and jab. He went through the motions until a chunk of wood flew off of the tree when he jabbed it’s side. ‘Sorry’ he mouthed to the giant oak, but continued to practice, smiling when the hit landed correctly and frowning when he missed or his arm banged back from an incorrect hit. His hands and arms ached, but he kept going. Swing up, strike left, hit their side and under the legs to make them fall. Eren kept striking the tree as the sun climbed into the sky, and until Levi returned home.

Levi returned with three squirrels and sweat dripping off of his skin. He’d already cleaned them and put the meat out to dry. He heard the sound of banging coming from the backyard. Curious, Levi opened the sliding door to the familiar sound of cicadas, the heat of midmorning rolled on him in waves. He looked under the tree, which now had several light strikes on it like scars, and saw Eren practicing the moves he’d shown him. Levi leaned against the doorway, taking a moment to catch his breath as he watched the small boy hit the tree over and over, using different combinations and even dodging invisible attacks. Levi smirked, not bad, he thought, not bad at all.

Eren stopped, panting, his chest heaved and his arm hurt something terrible. He raised the stick again, but was stopped by a voice,

“I think you’ve earned a break.” Levi commented when he saw how badly the small boy’s arm shook. How long had he been practicing? Eren turned on his heels and his eyes went wide when he saw Levi. A broad smile caught on his shiny face.

“Levi!” Eren exclaimed, dashing towards him as he dropped the stick under the tree, Eren latched onto Levi’s chest, “You’re back! You’re back!” He said over and over again. Levi was shocked, to say the least.

“Of course I’m back, I was just out hunting, you brat.” He scoffed, but he stopped when he felt something wet on the hem of his shirt where Eren had buried his face in, and it wasn’t sweat but tears that leaked from Eren’s eyes. Levi was stunned, why was he crying?

“I thought…” Eren hiccuped, “That you’d left me. That you didn’t like me anymore. So I practiced, because maybe…” A sniff, “Maybe if I didn’t disappoint you anymore you’d come back.”

Guilt swelled like a tidal wave in Levi’s chest. Was that what Eren thought? His accusations were backed up by Levi’s actions the previous night. Levi bent down, pulling Eren away from his side for a moment.

“Hey,” Levi said, Eren’s eyes were downcast, “Look at me,” His voice was soft and Eren looked up hesitantly. He looked so sad, so desperately hopeless. Levi pulled Eren in for a hug. Eren stood stiff, shocked. “I’m not going to leave you, okay? And don’t you dare think you disappoint me, Eren.” Levi said, he felt Eren smile in relief, then Eren returned the hug, wrapping his arms around Levi’s torso. “Now, are you okay?” Levi asked.

“Mm,” Eren nodded, giving Levi a squeeze.

“Great, because I brought something special for lunch today.” Levi said, referring to the squirrels that were now fully drying out on the counter. He’d sold their pelts at the market and bought a hunk of cheese as well. Eren’s stomach grumbled, Levi pulled him away, “Did you have any breakfast at all?” He raised a suspicious eyebrow.

Eren smiled and shook his head, “Nope! I wanted to make sure I was better at fighting by the time you got back!” He said it so cheerily, Levi scoffed.

“Damn brat,” Levi said, then the two walked inside, reconciled.

That night Levi laid down on his set of pillows, Eren hesitated, staring at him before Levi rolled his eyes.

“Come on, then, don’t just stand there.” He said, Eren smiled broadly and walked over to Levi, laying down next to him.

“You know,” Eren said, “You talk like an old man.” He giggled when he said this. Levi looked at him inquisitively.

“Do I?” He asked, Eren nodded.

“Yep, not like a ten year old at all!” He smiled, then a curious light came into his eyes, “I wonder if that means when you’re an old man, you’ll talk like an ancient man, or just stay the same as you are now…?” He laughed again, “I guess I’ll see then!”

“The hell’s got you so happy?” Levi asked, but he couldn’t help but smile at Eren’s sudden enthusiasm.

“Because you’re here, Levi!” Eren exclaimed, “I’m always happy when you’re here.” He said it so honestly Levi couldn’t help but become embarrassed.

“Shut the fuck up, you brat.” He muttered, turning his head to the side. Eren smiled, and poked Levi’s cheek,

“Aw, don’t be embarrassed!” He teased, then sat up, a serious look on his face all of a sudden, he turned towards Levi. “Let’s make a pact.” He said.

“A pact?” Levi asked.

“Yeah,” Eren nodded again, “Let’s promise to stay together, Levi, no matter what happens.” Then the smile returned, his white teeth and blue eyes catching the moonlight, “So that we can always be happy together, good or bad!” He held out his hand, his fingers all curled in except the pinky, “Pinky promise?” He asked.

Levi sighed, then sat up himself, and curled his pinky around Eren’s, “If it’ll get you to shut up and go to sleep, then yeah, I promise.”

Eren, satisfied, smiled, “Good!” He said, Levi leaned back and put his hands under his head, Eren laid down next to him, shuffling into the space between Levi’s chest and armpit, he laid his head on Levi’s chest, “Goodnight Levi,” He said.

“Goodnight, Eren.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Annnnd there's 2/5. Obviously, since this is a part of the Writer's Cache, this fic has an... odd... ending... Mainly because it's not really _the_ ending. It was supposed to be split up into 2-3 parts. I think the first part was called The Hunter and The Boy (this part, which is finished) the second was going to be The Thief and The Titan, and then the third was The Two of Them (or something along those lines). I finished the first part, which is what this whole thing is, but never really started on the second or third parts... I just didn't have the time. But rereading this, I like it. I might pick it up again after my current project is finished. We'll see.
> 
> Comments and Kudos are greatly appreciated!


	3. The End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so not /5 but /4 because apparently I either split it wrong or calculated wrong but yeah, only one part left.
> 
> Come talk to me:  
> goldie-the-cat.tumblr.com

So their days continued, and after a while Eren even insisted on joining Levi when he raided the baker. Levi could never describe the happiness he felt when the baker returned to shouting ‘You damn brats’ as they stole into the alleyways. Everyday Levi and Eren would train, and sometimes Eren would even get up earlier or stay out later to train more. Every night they would lay down together, and eventually all the pillows returned to a single mass.

Two years passed, and soon Eren was ten and Levi was twelve. Eren had, by then, a good understanding of fighting and Levi had confidence the boy could defend himself. Levi had also gotten better at hunting, and began to stalk deer in the forest, bringing back a stag or a doe once a month. Eren had also taken to scavenging the alleyways whenever they went outside, the empty shelves and pantries became filled with knick-knacks he’d found that interested him. A broken music box that still played part of a tune, a cracked iridescent glass orb that shimmered in the sun, an old clock whose hands remained forever still, and an old wooden rocking horse that was missing part of it’s rocker.

Levi would arrange, clean, and dust the knick knacks. Soon the old shack felt less like a hideaway, and more like a home. A home that he actually looked forward to coming back to everyday, he found himself smiling when he opened the door and saw Eren’s happy face by the doorway.

There were also times when Levi would come home injured, from what Eren had no idea. He would always see Eren’s worried face, and have to reassure him as he patched up whatever wounds he had.

In truth it was Levi striking fights with the town guards should they come too close to his humble abode. He would catch a guard snooping around the alleyways and try to drive them off. Not catch attention to himself, no, he never let them see his face. He wore a black bed sheet, tied into a cloak, that he’d found in a dumpster so that nobody would know who he was. He got better at fighting, better at predicting the guard’s style, but it also had it’s reciprocations on him.

Like the time Levi came in with his abdomen bleeding out terribly. Eren had dropped the music box he was toying with when Levi knocked on the door they kept locked. When Eren had opened it to see the cloak’s hood fall at Levi’s shoulders, a small rivulet of blood trickling down the side of his mouth as he clutched his stomach, the horrid color red seeping between his fingers, Eren’s eyes had gone wide. Levi collapsed on the floor, and Eren panicked.

“Levi!” He shouted, afraid and unsure what to do. Levi wanted to say something, anything, but he couldn’t. So he just let his eyes flutter closed and then forced them open again. Eren dragged Levi into the foyer.

“The door…” Levi rasped, Eren nodded and closed the door, bolting it shut before running to the storage closet and grabbing the bucket of water, rag, and bandages as Levi had taught him. Eren was shaking, water spilled everywhere as he dragged it across the floor. He couldn’t steady his hands to lift Levi’s shirt and clean off the wounds, he struggled to see past the tears that were welling up in his eyes. He couldn’t lose Levi, it just wasn’t an option.

“Don’t leave me…” Eren repeated the words over and over again as he cleaned away the dirt and began to reach for the bandages. Levi was reminded of another place, another time, when he shook a small, red-haired girl’s body. Pleading that she not leave him. He wasn’t about to abandon Eren to that fate. So he gripped Eren’s shaking hand, an attempt to steady it but he could barely hold his own hand up.

“I won’t…” He promised, hoping he could keep the promise himself. Eren nodded, steadying himself. And began to wrap Levi’s wound.

“You have to keep our promise…” He mumbled as he wrapped up the stab wound, “You promised to…” He sniffed, but didn’t bother to wipe his nose for the task at hand, “You promised to stay with me, no matter the good or bad…” After that they were silent, Levi’s tongue too heavy to move. He drifted into unconsciousness as he watched Eren wrap up his abdomen, crying. Levi swearing in his mind that he would cling to any last bit of life, if only to make those tears go away. Then all thoughts vanished along with the sight of Eren, and Levi felt his mind slip into a deep sleep. He wondered if that’s what it felt like to die.

But he didn’t die, when he awoke, Eren was clinging to him, passed out sometime in the night. Levi tried to move, grunting in pain, Eren blinked open his eyes at the noise.

“Levi…?” He mumbled, his voice heavy with sleep. Then like an electric shock had gone through him he sat up, “Levi! You’re alive!” Eren smiled happily, “I did it! I saved you! You’re alive!” He launched himself forward to cling to Levi, who let out an ‘oof’ in pain, Eren backed away, “Sorry, how do you feel?” He asked, his eyes wide with concern.

“Like I was stabbed in the fucking gut.” Levi sighed, pushing his hair out of his face. When he glanced at Eren, his eyes were… amber, and filled with rage.

“I’ll kill them.” Eren had said darkly, something akin to panic emerged in Levi’s chest, blooming like an unwanted flower. “I’ll kill them for hurting you,” Eren swore. Levi could almost see the way his eyes darkened, for a moment it even seemed like the whites of his eyes had begun to turn black.

“No,” Levi said curtly, snapping Eren back to reality, Eren blinked and looked at Levi with those same, blue-green eyes. Normal, the person he knew. “Don’t just kill people for the hell of it,” Levi reprimanded him, “Nobody deserves to die, no matter how damned they are.” He said it with such certainty, even though he himself wasn’t quite sure. But it seemed to help Eren, who just nodded, then glanced at Levi’s now bloodied bandages.

“We should change your bandages, right?” He asked, his eyes were no longer murderous, but concerned.

“I can do it,” Levi said, not fully sure he could, but he’d try anyway. “You go get food, I’m fucking starving.” Eren smiled and scrambled to his feet to get some bread and water for the both of them. He didn’t ask how Levi was stabbed, and Levi didn’t tell him.

It was better this way, Eren would be safe. For that, it was worth it. For that, Levi would do anything.

But he couldn’t do everything.

There would always be that flaw, the feeling like some royal guard is waiting around the corner to break down his door. Levi feared the slip-up, the day he felt was watching him like a silent observer, the day he wouldn’t be there, and they would find Eren. Would they kill him then? For he’d been hiding Eren away? Levi didn’t know, didn’t care for such thoughts. He would have no need for them, as long as that day stayed behind the wall where it lurked. As long as he didn’t slip up, and knew that the small boy with psychedelic eyes was still sleeping at his side when night came and went.

Winter of their second year together was long and hard. There’d been a large snowfall, and the baker had gone out of business. They began to scavenge the dumpsters, and Levi needed Eren’s help. Which meant no more fighting the guards to warn them off, not while Eren was watching.

They would sneak from corner to corner, whenever Levi heard the tell-tale chink of metal joints he would lay a hand against Eren and draw him back into the shadows of the wall. Watching as armored guards passed by, leaving heavy-set foot prints in the bright white snow. It lay over the ramshackle slums like a blanket. Seeping through the cracks in houses and covering the streets in a sheet of white. The sky remained grey, letting small flakes drift down and waltz around in their endless ballroom of sky. Levi and Eren would sometimes sit by the fire and watch the flakes swirl around outside their window.

Levi wished to be in front of the fire that day. Warm, with the black blanket he occasionally used as a cloak pulled around the both of them. Comfortable, happy. But instead they were scavenging, they’d run out of food. Had been out for a week then. Water wasn’t a problem, they’d just melted snow, but food? Not even the animals were out for hunting. It was the middle of winter, and a fresh snowfall blanketed the city and muffled their footsteps. Their breath came out in wisps of smoke, curling around the air and betraying where they were in the shadows. It was a dark day, the sky covered by a canvas of clouds, and in the shadows it was only his white breath that let Levi know where Eren was, and vice versa. There was nothing to be found where they were, so Levi walked to the edge of the corner and peaked out, there was nobody outside. Not even a guard. The wind blew, whipping snow into his eyes and obscuring anything further than five feet away. It was well enough, it meant nobody would be able to see them either.

Or so Levi thought as he signaled for Eren to run ahead to the next alleyway, he would follow behind. Eren began to run, he got halfway across the street before Levi heard the patter of feet running across a rooftop.

“Eren!” He called, but the wind muffled his voice and he watched a shadow launch itself from the roof above him. Levi took off sprinting, trying to outdo the figure flying through the air. But the wind is faster than feet, and the figure tackled Eren to the ground. The two disappeared in the color of the white snowstorm. A muffled shout was the last he heard for Eren’s whereabouts, and he couldn’t tell where it had come from.

“Eren!” Levi called again, where was he? He heard a thud behind him, and turned in time to see a sword swinging to connect with his neck. Levi stumbled back, watching the blade cute through the snow inches away from him. The shadow that he saw raised the sword again, and Levi flipped out his knife, meeting blade with blade. The person’s sword bounced back, and Levi took the moment to rush at them, they raised their sword to guard their face but Levi was going for their legs. He slipped behind them and swiped the blade across the joint behind their knees. The person let out a scream and fell to the floor. Levi didn’t stay to see their face, he started looking around wildly. Just in time to see two figures, one struggling rapidly, disappear into the alley that he’d been heading towards.

“Eren!” Levi called again. The second, smaller figure seemed to break free for a second,

“Levi!” A familiar voice called from beyond the snow. The first thing Levi felt was relief, he wasn’t dead, not yet. Then fear as the taller figure, the one that had jumped from the roof, dove towards Eren, who sidestepped, just as Levi’d taught him, and began to run into the alley. Levi tried to follow but a hand grabbed onto his ankle. It was the person he’d been fighting before.

“Damn… you…” They croaked, Levi drove his free foot onto their knuckles and they yelled in pain before he took off at a sprint. The larger figure had disappeared, in pursuit of Eren no doubt.

Levi ran through the alley, the snow tapered off here and allowed him some sight. It was a straight shot to the end of the alley, all he had to do was get there. And get there he did, a large old building with a half-broken glass roof. Levi burst through the large factory-esque doors and looked around.

It was completely empty except for a few piles of snowdrift, at the far back he saw the back of the person who had been chasing Eren, and Eren with his back against the wall in a defensive position. Levi ran forward, he kept his eyes on the person who had their back to him. He reached for his knife again, and as he did the mysterious figure raised a pale hand and snapped their fingers.

On the cue two people burst through the glass of the roof and came tumbling down, Levi sidestepped one, but the other landed in front of him. Both had cloaks on to cover their eyes. Levi grabbed his knife in defense, the person behind him lunged first, he turned and slashed across their extended hand, they swerved to the side and he missed by inches. But the second figure had already bounded towards him, Levi turned to knock them away but it was too late, they had already reached him and swiped the knife out of his hand. It clattered to the floor a few feet away. Levi watched the knife skid to rest and then met eyes with Eren, who was staring at him with wide, terrified eyes like a lamb about to face the butcher. Levi turned to the second figure again, but they had disappeared, by the time he turned around the first figure had already rushed up to him and knocked him back with their elbow. Levi felt a terrible pain blossom in his nose as something wet dripped down into his mouth, the second figure had waited patiently to the side. They grabbed Levi’s arm and pinned him down with the heel of their boot, the first figure took hold of his other arm before he could break free. Levi struggled, but he was only twelve, they were older, they were stronger, they had him pinned.

The mysterious person who had been chasing Eren was now slowly clapping his hands.

“Well, that was quite the show.” His smooth, sly voice made Levi sick to his stomach. Eren tried to run past him,

“Levi!” He shouted, but the figure easily grabbed Eren, holding him back by his shoulders. “Let me go! Levi! Levi!” Eren shouted again and again.

“Dammit,” The figure said as they struggled before tightening their grip on Eren, who yelped as the figure gave a vice-grip on his shoulder, it felt like he was crushing the bone in his grip. Levi saw that his hand was bleeding, Eren must’ve bitten him to get free. But they’d been led right into a trap.

“Levi!” Eren shouted again. The person grimaced visibly under their hooded cloak. They raised their sword, the handle facing Eren.

“Stop!” Levi called, but words had no effect on him, and the figure drove the handle onto Eren’s head, who collapsed and went limp under their hand. The person then let him drop.

“There,” They said with a sigh, “Now he’ll be quiet.” They sheathed their sword and Levi simmered with anger. He was going to rip their throat out.

“Now then,” A somewhat familiar voice sounded, “I didn’t think all that was necessary.” The hooded figure looked around, grimacing.

“Show yourself!” They called into the darkness. They were met with a low chuckle.

“I was planning on it.” Levi felt one of his captors yell as the sound of many footsteps rushed in from the door, he craned his neck around to see several silhouettes rushing towards the door.

Were they friend or foe?

Levi swiveled his head to see if he could find Eren, but Eren and the first cloaked figure had both disappeared.

His stomach dropped. No, that couldn’t be, he couldn’t have lost Eren…

“Bastard! Left us to fight alone!” One of his captors shouted, before he and the other one let go of Levi’s arms and took off running. Two of the previously silhouetted people ran past him and after them. The rest of those who’d come rushing in stopped and began to look around the factory.

“Find them,” Said the familiar voice, “We’ve orders not to let them get away.” Footsteps, then a pair of black boots stopped in front of Levi. If they were waiting for him to look up and meet their eyes then they had another thing coming.

“Long time no see, Levi.” They said. How did he know who Levi was? Levi glanced up and met the older, but still recognizable, face of Erwin Smith. “Fancy seeing you still alive.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Annnd that's all that was written for this. Like I said, part of the writers cache so not completely finished. But I hope you enjoyed what was there!
> 
> Comments and Kudos are greatly appreciated.

**Author's Note:**

> This was one of my longer works... it... almost went somewhere. In fact it does kind of have _an ending_ just not _the ending_ that I planned. (Not this part by the way, there's about four more sections to this unfinished work- Eren comes in on the next one).
> 
> The name of all these ideas "Writer's Cache" comes from the fact that, maybe, one day, I'll actually continue this. So it's sort my "cache" of unfinished ideas.
> 
> Comments and Kudos are greatly appreciated.


End file.
